Subsonic Cast bullet loads for the Ruger Super Blackhawk Pt. 2

Good weather and time in my schedule finally coincided today. It was an absolutely perfect day to spend some time at my club's outdoor range, with very little wind and temperatures around 71 degrees.  I packed up the Super Blackhawk and the moderate .44 Magnum  loads I'd made up a week ago: 240gr LSWC over 6.8gr of Trail Boss powder (RCBS Little Dandy rotor #25).

Normally I test new loads and new guns starting at 25 yards. For some reason I decided to set up at 50 yards instead, and started out shooting while seated at the bench, supporting my gun in my hands with my elbows on the bench. My first shot missed the paper. For the second I held dead center- and hit a few inches from the bull! My second went wide to the right ( I jerked the trigger) but the third was also close to the bull:

I was so amazed I took this target down and put up a fresh one. I switched to shooting standing at that point, and still managed to get all my shots on the paper in a very reasonable group.  Besides being fairly accurate, this load is also pleasant to shoot. It generates around 500 ft-lbs of energy, which is about 40% the energy of a full 240 JHP load, and about what you'd expect from a modest .357 load. The increased weight of the Super Blackhawk definitely smooths out the recoil. The report is modest, too, compared to a full magnum load.

Thirty years ago I liked to shoot full-bore loads a la Elmer Keith: 22 grains of 2400 under a 240gr JSWC (Elmer used a 250gr "Keith" bullet.) The roar, combined with the tongue of flame from the muzzle, and the recoil that flipped the muzzle skyward was very entertaining to a young shooter. But unless you're actually hunting good-sized game, there's no need for a 1,500 foot-pound load. This load delivers .44 Special energy, which is more than enough for smaller game, varmints, and knocking over metallic silhouettes, and doesn't leave any lead in the barrel.

I was a bit concerned about cost, as Trail Boss is much bulkier than other powders and comes in 9 ounce jars rather than the 1 pound jars of most powders. It's also a bit pricier, costing about 50% more per ounce than Unique and almost 60&% more than Bullseye. But when I compare per-round costs, it turns out that a 6.8gr charge of Trail Boss is less than a penny more per round. I'd planned on making up some more subsonic loads with Unique and perhaps some other powders, but really, I think I've found my ideal subsonic load.

(Part I of this post is here.)

Subsonic Cast bullet loads for the Ruger Super Blackhawk Pt. 1

While I do have a box of factory Remington .44 magnum loads that have been sitting in the safe for over 20 years, I thought I'd start out with some milder loads for the new/old Super Blackhawk I picked up this past February. Subsonic lead loads are quieter, more fun to shoot, and more economical, too; unless you're actually hunting there's not a lot of need for full power loads.

Cases are still in short supply (I have some on back order at Midway) so I bit the bullet (pun intended) and and paid $40 to a scalper on Amazon for 100 new Starline cases. I also I ordered a few hundred 0.431" lead SWC bullets from Dardas, primer from Midway, and as I have a good supply of suitable powders on hand I was set to go.

For my first loads I decided to go with that classic, hard-to-screw-up powder, IMR Trail Boss. I've talked about it before. It's a very fast burning powder, on a par with Bullseye, but it's around four times as bulky as Bullseye. It was designed for Cowboy Action Shooting but has applications for a wide range of low-veocity loads for handguns and rifles. Basically, you find the volume of a case with a seated bullet, fill 70% of that with Trail Boss, and you have a safe load.

I decided to go with IMR's published loads for the .44 mag, which range from 6.0-7.3 grains for a cast bullet. Even at the max load, IMR's testing says you're only at 21,600 psi. As the SAAMI spec for the .44 mag calls for a maximum of 36,000 psi, that's a very comfortable margin. I ordered a #25 rotor for my RCBS Little Dandy powder dispenser, which actually delivered a consistent 6.8gr of powder, according to my Hornady electronic scale. If anything, that will give me an even wider safety margin.

As you can see, that 6.8gr fills the case about 3/4 of the way. That's good. A double charge would over-fill it, which I'd immediately recognize. Anything that increases the margin of safety is worthwhile.

Often when I'm reloading low volumes I use a simple press rather than my turret press. It takes a bit longer, but this way I can easily inspect each load before I slip a bullet in. I have the powder measure mounted next to the press, so it's dump powder, inspect, insert bullet...

... and press...

Result: A safe load. I'd intended to go to my club to test these today, but it's been raining pretty continuously, so perhaps tomorrow. In the meantime perhaps I'll make up some wadcutter loads in 7.62x25R I've been meaning to try in my Nagant revolver.

The .22 Short

The .22 Short is the oldest of the .22 rounds being made today. In fact, it's the oldest American metallic cartridge. It was invented in 1857 by Smith & Wesson for their #1 revolver:

S&W developed the #1 revolver and the .22 Short for personal defense, which might surprise the modern reader, as the original short used a 30 grain bullet and just 4 grains of black powder. Muzzle energy of the original #1 was probably in the range of 40 foot-pounds. Not much of a self-defense caliber from the point of view of today's shooters, but as it is often said, no one wants to be shot, even with a .22 short. And as an ER doctor told me, every gunshot is potentially fatal, even one from a .22 short.

There was a time when the .22 short made sense. Guns were chambered for it, and it was popular with those looking to pot small game at short distances or plink at targets as it's a relatively quiet round when fired from a rifle, especially in standard  velocity versions. (A fellow once told me how he used to bag pigeons on the roof of his college dorm in the 1960s with a .22 short rifle!) Olympic .22 pistols used in rapid fire competition were chambered for it, since it was the lowest recoiling cartridge made.

Today there's only one .22 I know of that's chambered for the short- the tiny North American Arms revolver in .22 Short- and that's more of a novelty than a practical gun. Everything else in .22 is chambered for the .22 LR, and while you can shoot a .22 short from a gun chambered for .22 LR, accuracy suffers from the bullet having to make the long jump through the chamber before it hits the rifled section of the barrel. If you want a quiet, subsonic, load in .22 there are plenty of low-powered .22LR rounds that duplicate the ballistics of the Short.

It still survives and is made in a limited number of loadings by CCI, Aquila, Remington,  and probably some more European manufacturers I'm not aware of, so those with older guns can still shoot and enjoy them.

Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum, Part I

Back in the 1980s I had a pair of Dan Wesson revolvers in .357 and .44 Magnum. Both were superbly accurate, superbly well made revolvers and I wish I'd hung on to them. .357 and .44 are fun calibers to reload, with a wide range of powders and bullet combinations possible. I started out loading hot loads using 2400 that generated a three foot tongue of flame, but the novelty wore off pretty quickly and I started loading rounds that were more like what people were shooting in the late 19th and early 20thC, typically modest loads of Unique- a powder that was available back then, as it turns out.

A few years ago I got back into centerfire shooting and reloading again and bought a Ruger Blackhawk in .357. I've always liked single actions, and especially Ruger single actions. The Blackhawk led to the purchase of a Single Six, and now, a .44 Super Blackhawk to fill out the collection. 

According to the serial number, it's 1974 production, making it an even 40 years old this year. Condition is a touch rough, cosmetically, with some scratches, holster wear, and a tiny bit of rust on the backstrap.  The bores and cylinder were pretty dirty, too. The last owner of this gun was someone who didn't really take very good care of it- it looks like it was fired, shoved in the holster, and left there for a long time. (Tip: NEVER store a gun in a leather holster. It'll rust.) At first I thought I saw signs of heavy leading (which I used to help negotiate price) but turned out it was just big chunks of powder residue. But it locked up solid, and was in generally VG condition, with well over 90% of the blue, so I bought it. When I got home I stripped it, gave it a very thorough clean and lube, and a coat of polarized oil for rust protection. I also worked on the scratched areas and where the bluing had been rubbed off with a bottle of Oxpho-Blue and 0000 steel wool, which made an improvement. Next, I may work on those grips- or buy new ones, as these have a chip missing.

I have in my safe one box of brand-new Federal JHP loads in .44 Mag, purchased in the late 1980s, with a price tag on them that reads "$8.95." How much more could they be now? A lot more, as it turns out. The shop where I bought this revolver had one box of 50 American Eagle for $54.95! Even Midway gets $49.49 for the AE. The cheapest they carry is Prvi Partisan at $36.99. Some of the custom loads from outfits like Buffalo Bore go for $35/20, which works out to $87.50/50. (Correction: Buffalo Bore has .44 mag rounds with solid brass 300gr bullets that sell for about $80/20 rounds. That's $4/each!)

No matter. I'd planned to reload for this gun. I've got a few cans of powder appropriate to the .44, including Unique, 2400, and Trail Boss. But of course I also need large pistol primers ($32-40/1000, plus HAZMAT shipping), cases (found some Starlines for $39/100, shipped) and bullets ($15/150 plus postage from Dardas for 240gr hard cast) and last, but hardly least, a set of dies. I went with Lee as they're compatible with everything else I use. With postage, the dies ran $47.

So that's my birthday present to myself this year, although I may yet sell a few under-used toys from the safe to balance the hobby spending accounts. More after everything arrives and I start loading.